The Most Profitable Fall Side Hustle (Start With $0) Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 Porch Pumpkins might be the best seasonal side  hustle. Why? Because half of every dollar earned is pure profit. The package number one [music]  makes $1,350. This Dallas mom of three, Heather, makes over $100,000 of profit per month. Our sales  were just at $100,000. Oh my gosh. Not only that, but it's a very viral business. It sells itself  thanks to social media.

00:19 My phone just kept going. Ding, ding, ding. And customers pay you upfront.  That's right. your risk is close to zero because you collect all the money upfront. Today, we're  diving deep into the porch pumpkin business, how to find customers, how to find cheap pumpkins, and  how to run this business without going crazy. So, without further ado, let's meet Heather.

00:40 All  right, so Heather, what first inspired you to start decorating porches with pumpkins? So, we  used to live across from the Dallas Arboretum, and they do this amazing display every year. It's  called Pumpkin Village. In fact, I was just there yesterday with our designers. We love it. The  amount of pumpkins they use is insane. So before I ever stepped into Dallas Aubberum, I would have  like two pumpkins on my doorstep to represent Halloween and all the fall things.

01:02 And then I saw  what was possible, what is possible, how beautiful it can be, all the different colors and textures.  I was a one orange jacko'lantern girl, you know, so I started decorating my own porch. People  definitely noticed how like cute and pretty it was and how festive it was. And so they asked like,  "Can you do this at my house?" And back then I I had two young children.

01:23 You know, they're um 18  months apart. And so the answer was no. But once my youngest was in like preschool, I just thought,  you know, maybe it's time to do something. Um I've always I've always done something. I started  thinking about like, well, this pumpkin business, how can I thing that is scalable and easy?  Well, I love pumpkins and people have always asked me to do pumpkins.

01:44 I wanted them to be in  the packages. From there, [clears throat] I just created packages. created a flyer and kind  of the rest is history. And I think that's important cuz if you left it up to them to choose  what they wanted, like they don't know and that's confusion and that's friction and that's like  them just ultimately saying never mind. But if you're saying choose this, this this or this,  then they kind of they have a good direction, right?

02:05 And also as a business owner, your time,  you know, so they're like, "Oh, I want this and this and that." And then you're you're going  to have to like stop and cost that specific thing out, which takes more time. And now, do I do  custom packages? Absolutely. They start at $3,500 and they go up from there. But I'm happy to do  a custom package for anyone at $3,500 or more.

02:26 And that's just what I figured out. Like that's  the price point that I need it to be for my time to not just take the packages that I've already  created. Well, coming from the restaurant world, imagine if there was a restaurant that didn't  have a menu and people just walked in and like, I don't know, maybe some tacos, some pizza.  Like, what would the kitchen do?

02:39 And you know, people ask me all the time like, what package  should I get? So, like even like looking at this front porch, they could do any one of my  packages here. You can't really like so be like, "Do you want to pack like are you hosting a party?  Do you have something special going on? Let's do the package one this year." But then the typical  this year could be the package three and it's perfect.

03:00 It's going to have plenty of pumpkins  to fill up the porch. So, usually when people do ask me about which pumpkin package to get, I'd  give them like two options. And then I say like, "And if you want to go really big, you know, this  a package one will fit on your porch if you're looking for that." Package one 1350. 1350. Okay.  Uh includes design.

03:13 Okay. Um clients can add on for us to pick up the pumpkins at the end of the  season and take them uh we take them to a pumpkin uh excuse me to a pig farm. Okay. The package two  is $800. The grand prize pumpkins like if we sell those individually at$185 each. So if you think  about two of those that's just under $400 which that's kind of the about the price difference  minus the few extra pumpkins that you do get with the package one.

03:41 And then the package three  is priced at 525. And our package three and four, I wanted to create a package where we could just  drop off the pumpkins for our clients to create their own display. Had I had that option back  before I started this business, I absolutely would have paid for someone else to just drop the  pumpkins off and let me be creative.

03:56 I love being creative. And so it was just really important for  me to always keep that. So the package three is $5.25, but then you can add design for $75. And  then the package four is the smallest which is 325 and you can add design for $75. Okay. 95% of  my clients do add design for the package three and four. I was thinking we were talking about  designers and like you should for people that elect not to pay for your design, you should say,  "Hey, send me a picture of what you do and maybe I'll hire you, right?"

04:26 Because that's that is  kind of a bottleneck is having good designers, right? Yes. Yes. Have you ever found a designer  from a customer? Actually, yes. Really? Uh, one of my designers that start joined the team  last year, I was messaging her to remind her to order and she's like, "Are you hiring designers  this year?" And I said, "I sure am." She's like, "I love getting my pumpkins from you, but I  like displaying them myself."

04:43 And she sent me a picture and I was like, "You're hired." Done.  One picture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it was It's been great. Guys, it's 93° right now. I spent  thousands of dollars to film and edit this video, and my only goal in life is for you to [music]  start a business. So, if you want to say thanks, all you got to do is subscribe and or maybe share  it with a friend.

05:00 it would mean the world to me. Okay, so that first year you officially launched,  how did that go? What was that like? What were your sales and your order numbers? So, first year  I thought that I was going to, you know, just do 30. That was my goal. And I quickly exceeded  that in like 4 days. We ended the 2020 season designing and displaying 250 homes in the DFW  area.

05:20 Our sales were just at $100,000. Oh my gosh. Literally, I was just thinking like, if I can  sell $10,000 in pumpkins, like this will be great. I'll make this Christmas money. Yeah, that'll be  great. And just wow, the wildfire started. How much of that would you guess was profit that first  year? Uh the first year, I mean, I was literally driving. I was loading the pumpkins myself in  my Yukon.

05:42 I was unloading the pumpkins myself at the home. And then I was designing. And so profit  margin was 50%. Wow. So 50,000 of profit in like 2 months of work. Like hard work. Way less. This is  entrepreneurs ask me all the time, is it too late? Is it too late to start this pumpkin business? And  my answer is no. It's not too late. Yes, it's too late. If you wait, you won't do it, right?

06:04 If  you wait till like the week before Halloween, maybe it's too late then, but even then, no.  Get three homes under your belt. You know, I started September 27th. Like now, yes, I start  back in July collecting the orders. But year 1, we started September 27th and we wrapped the week  before October 16th because that's my youngest son's birthday. So, I mean, two weeks.

06:23 Yeah. Two  weeks. We just And today you go you deliver all the way until like October 17th or so. Now we go  through October 17th. So this is the first year that I've opened four weeks of delivery for DFW,  which has been so great. It's allowed us to be able to take on so many more clients. Year one, we  didn't have a website. I would be driving around with my car full of pumpkins.

06:42 It was the third  day I was in business. My phone just kept going ding ding ding ding ding. And I was like, what is  happening? We were driving out to Fort Worth and he was like, yeah. And he's like, oh, it's this  person wants pumpkins. And I'm like, what's their name? What's their address? I don't I don't know  anyone over there. And that was a big unlock.

06:54 Like I'm selling to people I don't know. I'm selling to  people I don't know. This is so exciting. And so we got to where we're going. We did all of our  designs for the day. And then like I responded back like um I got the information I needed and  then I would be done for the day at like 7:00 at night. I would then go home, reach back out to  these people, send them an invoice, they would Venmo me or pay online with a credit card like  old school like Quickbooks.

07:18 So you expected 30 orders. You hope for 30 and what did you get the  first year? 250. Oh [laughter] my gosh. I know. I was just in the business of saying yes. I was  like, you want to buy pumpkins from me? My answer is going to be yes. Let me figure it out. And so  I just kept saying yes. And I quickly like I had Jackson that came on to help me. I found a driver  that could actually pull a trailer.

07:37 And so I could do more than like three houses of pumpkins at a  time. And I even found like two designers that could help me in that first year. Okay. And then,  you know, we just built from that. Okay. Well, I'm going to have to ask you later about how you find  these customers because that it wouldn't work with any of that. Got to have the customers and um I am  so thankful for all of our customers and it's just it's amazing.

08:01 Yeah. All right. So, we're sitting  here on a flatbed trailer and you've got six orders on this. Six orders. Yes. Okay. And this  is a package three, right? Yes. We've got I don't know 15 pumpkins in here plus a bunch of small  ones. Well, no. We have about like 30 pumpkins in here. Yeah. I'm not good at counting. So, yeah.  All right. And what does the package three cost?

08:22 Package three cost $525 to be delivered. If the  client wants the pumpkins designed and set up by us, they add an additional design fee for $75. So  for a total of 600. What percentage of customers roughly add your design fee? 95%. Okay. So 600  bucks most of the time. This because I know where this is going today is $600. Okay. Yeah. And then  what does it cost to have them pick back up?

08:39 For a package three, it cost $100 for us to pick them  up at the end of the season. And what percentage of people choose choose that? 90% of our Okay.  So, $700. Yeah. $700. Here it is. But you give people the option. What are all the packages you  have? So, you have a package four that's $325. You can add design for that one for $75. You have a  package three for $525, which you can add design for $75.

09:05 The package two comes with design. It  includes design and that's um $800. And then the package number one also includes design and it's  $1,350. Lastly, we have an Oh my gourd package that u I have Oh My Gourd. Um we have three  different colorways that you [clears throat] can choose from on that. So they have like a few  different number of amounts of pumpkins and that one's 750 and includes design.

09:28 Okay. We just  got an increase in popularity of like people that don't want the orange pumpkins and so um that's a  way for them to to order those. Is that just like a trend like the trends are changing? Yeah,  you know they have like all neutrals. Also if your home gets full sun the Oh my god package does  last. Um really well. Yeah. So, okay. Roughly how much revenue is represented on this one?

09:50 Roughly  we have six and the average of a package three $3,600. Okay. And this will take like half a day  to deliver. Oh, no. Like 2 and 1/2 hours, 3 hours. Wow. How are you unloading these? Well, I have  Gustavo. He's going to unload them. And so he will use a wheelbarrow for most efficiency. All right.  So, four six hay bales, six orders. Is it one per house or does it not go like that?

10:15 Well, the  package fours don't include hay. People can add that on, but the package threes include two bills  of hay. So, there's some threes and some fours on there. So, some people added hay. Okay. So, would  you say you're the fastest in the company at design? Oh, 100%. Yeah. So, these on average take  me 10 minutes. So, this is like a $400 job. This is the package three.

10:34 It just doesn't have the  hay because of the stairs. So, this is $600. Oh, this is $600 job. What would you say for this job  your profit would be? Roughly $300. Beautiful. So, you're obviously not buying these at the grocery  store. What is the big secret to sourcing these pumpkins? The real secret is buying as many  pumpkins as you need for your season.

10:48 And so, the more pumpkins you need, then you can get them  direct from farmers. Are there any farms that you like or prefer? Oh, I love a farm. Pumpkin Pile  in West Texas and Floyd Data. They are amazing. They're a family multigeneration family working  together and they put out beautiful pumpkins. They do a great job. Their communication's  great.

11:11 Their website's easy, but they do a great job and we we love them. Pumpkin Pile. P Y  L E, right? P Y L E. Okay. And this is not an ad. We're not being paid by them to say this. Is that  Do you recommend someone starting with a farm or starting with like a distributor or There's  just different ways to go about it. I mean, you can purchase pumpkins from a nursery.

11:29 They are  going to be like the bottom level of ease where to get pumpkins and get quality and variety. And then  you could pick like a middleman type person. That would be like a produce distributor. Okay, let me  just see if I get it. So, the very very like the worst but most accessible option is just going to  the grocery store and that's not scalable.

11:45 You're not really going to be very profitable, right? And  you're only probably going to be able to get three or four varietals from that. Okay. And then one up  is the nursery. A nursery. Pumpkins are going to be a little bit more expensive, but you're going  to have likely really great quality and you're going to have a great option of pumpkin variety.

12:01 Okay. And then up from there is like a grocery distributor or or a broker or is a broker one up?  Yeah. No, like a pumpkin broker because they're still they're a middleman. They're not the farm.  Yeah. And they're gonna mark it up. And they're gonna mark it up. They're They're gonna make money  for helping you get those pumpkins. Yeah. And that's how you started.

12:18 Yes. Absolutely. Okay.  And then up from there, you go directly to the farm. Directly to the farm. And then this year,  we brought in 2018 wheelers or we will bring in 2018 wheelers directly from farms. Yeah. That's  a lot. That's a lot of pumpkins. It is. Okay. So, we were just like up in the front. That's today's  deliveries, right? And then this is like the back stock where they pull it all from.

12:36 Yes. Okay.  Yeah. The quick rundown is there's some here and then on the back side of the cooler there's  a whole another huge section. I don't like to run out of things. This is again like that's a very  like advanced business tactic is over orderering to not run out cuz like if you think of a doughnut  shop we'll give away donuts at the end of the day because it costs like 5 cents to make a doughnut.

12:55 They sell it for a dollar and so if they sell out then that's free money that they just left on the  table. But if they have 300 left then that's like six bucks worth of donuts, right? You know. And  so doing that math, it's important. Yeah. It's funny cuz I just noticed like as we're filming  all the pumpkins to the ceiling. I thought we were just looking at this.

13:13 [laughter] You got a  lot of pumpkins going on. You want more customers than you could ever imagine. Come on my podcast.  This podcast, the one you're listening to now. Go to tko.com. Tell me what your story is and I  might have you on. And if your friend has a cool story about making thousands of dollars in a short  period of time, send it to them and I'll give you a,000 bucks for the referral.

13:32 tko Yes.com. So if  you do I mean when you over orderer because you over orderer strategically. Do you just send those  all to the pig farm with the old pumpkins too? No, that's not the goal. The goal is to sell them all.  Okay. And like if I have to use this like in a display just like a bonus, you know, it's not like  as a grand price. So will you start to do more bonuses as the season gets later if you kind of  look at your inventory levels?

13:52 If I need to. Yes. But usually when I'm looking at my inventory  levels and aside from grandpric pumpkins, if I'm looking at my inventory levels and I still  have enough pumpkins, like we will h we'll have a wait list of 200 or 300 people. We'll look at  that weight list and we'll just pull additional trailers at the end of the season. So right now  we are scheduled through October 15th, but I've already planned on we'll have a full route day on  October 16th.

14:14 Also, do you do discounts for those late days or No, it's just like they wouldn't have  a chance to order anyway, right? That's all they got. Charge more. Okay. So, aside from buying  pumpkins, what are your costs in this business? We have pumpkins. We have umbrella insurance.  We rent a forklift. We pay for warehouse space. I personally own a lot of trailers now.

14:33 Now, we  do require our drivers to come with a truck and trailer and a dump trailer because a dump trailer  is really efficient. Is that for picking them all up? For pumpkin pickup. Okay. So, if someone um  wanted to start this like cheaply, could they just get away with a trailer or finding a driver  that has a trailer? Yes, absolutely. Can you store them outside?

14:52 You could. uh you'd want to cover  them. Okay. Okay. What about fuel costs? Is that a big expense or Our drivers and our designers  are responsible for that? 999 employees. Okay. How do you pay your drivers and your designers?  So drivers are paid hourly and designers are paid um by the design. Okay. Usually the businesses  we create are we're solving our own problems, right?

15:14 So you're your own customer and you're the  business owner. So you've approached everything in this business of like how would I think  of it? Would I want to be paid to do this? Would I want to do design? would I want to  outsource that? People might think at first, well, like I'm just one person, like why should I  build my business around my needs or preferences, but that's the demand.

15:30 Like even if it's a sample  size of one, you're proving that there's a demand. Whereas a lot of times people approach business  and like they're just guessing from theory. Like what do they want? They'd probably pay  $150 for porch pumpkins when you're like, they would pay a lot more, more, more, [laughter]  higher, higher. Right? I am the average consumer.

15:48 There are people that spend a lot more. There  are people that spend less than I do. So when I created these package sizes, I was really thinking  about like what do I do? What do I think my friend Cara would do? What do I think this person would  do? And you kind of go from there. And then it is trial and error. But specifically like charging  what you're worth.

16:02 That is so important for me as a female business entrepor. I'm going to make sure  that I am being paid adequately for the time away from my precious family and my precious children.  Exactly. And I really think anyone should because everyone gets 24 hours in a day. Yeah. Sometimes  people approach it like, "Well, I know I could go get this job for 18 an hour or so.

16:21 I'll charge 20  an hour." But the question is like what you said, "How much would I need to be paid to spend  time away from my children?" Probably way more, right? So, if you can't build a business at  that price, then maybe you shouldn't build a business. Your very first season, you could easily  do $30,000, maybe even $40,000 if you got started now and got yourself out there and really marketed  yourself and followed some specific strategy.

16:45 Yeah. Um to get clients. So, and half of that  being profit roughly. Yes. So, two months of work, $10 to $20,000 of net profit first season,  right? That's that's not like pie in the sky, passive income, sexy YouTube number. That's  realistic. That's a realistic number. And it is not passive income because you need in order to  make that percentage, you need to be working it.

17:05 You need to be doing it. But yes, it is absolutely  attainable. What are your go-to tactics, tricks, secrets of Instagram, short form video, and all  of that? Instagram, I follow what is trending now. And so on my Instagram, I don't do silly. I don't  do ridiculous. I don't do all the funny trends, which but you know, right now carousels  are really hot.

17:23 And during my sell season, I made sure that I was using a lot more carousels  than I would previously. Like last year, I would just do a single static photo because that's what  was doing better. And then also reals like so you have to follow what Instagram algorithm is putting  out there. And if you just follow some different marketing people on Instagram, they will literally  give you that information for free.

17:43 You just have to do a little bit of homework. Yeah. So that's  one big thing. So Instagram, follow the current trends. But if I'm just starting out, you can use  social media, but the fortune's in the followup. And they say a comment on your Instagram or they  leave a a message in your inbox. You have to follow up with them. I mean, especially as a brand  new entrepreneur, you need to follow up and make sure like, "Oh, coming back to make sure that  I can help you place your order.

18:08 I haven't seen your photo come through yet. Like, you have to do  the work. Get those orders. I mean, entrepreneurs like us, we're eternal optimists, right? And so, I  even still I fall into the trap of I got 10 leads. I have 10 people that want my porch pumpkins.  I have 10 customers. No, not even close. If you follow up with them maniacally, you might have  seven or eight.

18:26 Like, if you do everything right, if you just like expect them to just remember a  week later and follow through and start ordering, you might have one or two, right? So, the  follow-up is everything. Everything. You can't just send an email out like, "Oh, I know."  So many people. I'm on this organization. I'm in like sure you can send an email blast out of  200.

18:45 You'll probably get three or four orders and then everyone else you need to follow up  with. Yeah. Personally, oneonone personally. Yeah. It doesn't seem scalable. It doesn't seem  efficient, but it's much more effective. It is. Do you ever put paid ads behind your organic  stuff? Like you boost it. Yes, I do that. Do you boost it to like a specific zip code and that  works?

19:02 Yes, I tell that in my business classes. What about are you in the comments like all over  the comments all the time and that again that's because Instagram guru someone told me that  the first I don't remember the exact minutes but it's like the first 30 minutes that you post  something you should be prepared to sit there and reply to all the comments and so I do that you  know increase my reach beyond what we'll even see over the next week because we are on a wait  list now but we potentially go on a wait list so we

19:30 can make sure that we're filling our routes  that aren't completely full so I can add more Lakewood homes or University Park homes etc. So,  okay. So, season 1 you did 250 homes. Yes. And I just think it's interesting that you're saying  20 to 50 is realistic and I love that cuz you're conservative and you're not trying to but like  you did 250. That's And people watching this now have a blueprint, right?

19:49 True. I think I'm so  conservative because my goal was 30. You know, my goal was 30. I thought that was a realistic  number. I am in DFW where we have 8 million people. Yeah. 8 million people. And then I once  had someone tell me in a sales position that I had is like right like like a $200 order. And so  that's always stayed in my mind and that's why I said yes to Prosper.

20:10 That's why I say yes to Fort  Worth. That's why I say yes to Lucas. I just have to put a dollar amount on it. We go there. Like  how far are you in your area from huge population? Say yes. Go there and you can grow. And just  because I was the first like 6 years ago to kind of create this model doesn't mean that there's  not more room for everybody.

20:26 Oh yeah. People don't understand how much the pie grows. Like as  more people see porches on pumpkins, they want it, right? In a sense, more competitors is more  business for everyone, right? Whereas if you were always only the only person doing this, your  ceiling is is somewhat capped, right? You don't have as much reach because not as many people are  seeing it, right?

20:44 So from 250 orders to you're creeping up on 1300 this year. Yes. Yes. That's  incredible. How much like profit do you think you'll make this year? I think our percentage  margins will be anywhere from 50 to 55%. That's incredible. Hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Yes. Two months of very concentrated work, September through the end of October. And then  there's another like month and a half of part-time work.

21:08 Yeah. That goes into it. Okay. At this  scale, at this level, that's like that's what's so interesting about this business is season one,  $10,000 profit a month for two months, right? Season six, not saying results are typical, over  a h 100,000 per month of profit. That's that's incredible. It's not often that I meet people that  didn't just start a business, but started a whole industry, a a pumpkin movement, if you will.

21:27 How  does How does that feel? It feels incredible. So, what percentage of like all of the secret sauce  would you say we cover today? Cuz I think people are like us entrepreneurs, we're overoptimistic.  We're overconfident sometimes. Of everything there is that you know about this business, what  percentage did we cover in this video? I mean, we haven't been together that long today.

21:43 I  don't know, like 10%. Maybe 15 max. Okay. But there's just so much there's so much that goes  into it. And like yes, astute, smart people that have the brain for it in the eye, they can kind  [music] of pick apart some some pieces. And I was happy to share, but there is so much more.  Yeah. To making this [music] business work, make it easy, and make it flow from the  very beginning. Okay. Porchpumpkins.com